Car D.I.Y.

[Drago]

My old Peugeot was the same - SS would only activate under a very rightly prescribed set of circumstances.

The van, however, it goes off all the time. Doesn't even need to be in neutral, just so long as the vehicle is stationary.

 

[CXRAndy]

The concern is that when the engine shuts off it kills the oil supply to the still-spinning turbo. Not good over the longer term.

Proscribed method is to let the car idle for several minutes after heavy load driving to let the turbo cool down.

Engine cutoff timers were popular in the day with high performance jap cars like Impreza turbo, Nissan GTR and Mitsubishi Evo.

I used to let my Impreza turbo idle. I've seen turbos glow red after drag strip runs

 

[raleighnut]

My next door neighbour has a 'Scooby' that can tick over for several minutes when he stops, longer if he's been playing silly beggers in it. Mind he has had it 'played with' (450 BHP was mentioned on pump petrol more on E85 though)
Scott firmly admits it's a toy but he's had it from new and it's 15 years old now and these days it only get's taxed for a month now and then (declared SORN the rest of the time)

 

[CXRAndy]

I bought mine new '97. Started modyfying it around 2007, got it up nearly 500hp on standard 99 ron fuel.

Decided to have a newer ecu fitted instead of the Apexi, with better fuel cut and anti lag features. The tuner blew up my engine on the rolling road.

I sued him, won in court. By then the car had been off the road more than 2 years, so I gave it the engine builder. I was paid out quite well from court, so didn't lose out financially.

The whole jap tuning thing was dying, and fizzled out a few years later.

With the money I nearly went for the Lichfield type25, but couldn't quite get on with the look.

In stock form my Impreza turbo was one of the best cars I've ever owned, fast, practical 4 door saloon

 

[Pinno718]

Do you smell of sheep? You'll probably have randy ewes chasing after you!

I bought some Lano guard - the clear stuff as my floor pan had a Dinitrol treatment, so the 944 is currently on axle stands as I pressure washed the underside as prep for spraying the gruppo.

Meanwhile, I am making a sump panel out of fibreglass whilst it's up in the air. The Porker OEM one's (apart from being very expensive for what they are) do not allow for jacking up on the engine cross member and I have got so used to using it with no sump panel, I decided to make one with an aperture for a jacking point. Same as the BMW one under the engine; a very convenient thing it is. This, I have made out of a thick 21cm x 13cm x 2mm stainless steel plate. Which I am very pleased with. I'm also making an air duct on the panel.

There's a few things to reconcile and the panel has to clear the anti-roll bar. It's all looking a bit crude currently but hopefully the jigsaw will come together. Pics later if it loos good, no pics if it doesn't.

 

[Drago]

Handy tip for nedt year Pinno - the Buzzweld Lano spray is a lot less expensive than Lanoguard and I personally think its better. It appears to give a thicker film on the surface.

 

[raleighnut]

I bought mine new '97. Started modyfying it around 2007, got it up nearly 500hp on standard 99 ron fuel.

Decided to have a newer ecu fitted instead of the Apexi, with better fuel cut and anti lag features. The tuner blew up my engine on the rolling road.

I sued him, won in court. By then the car had been off the road more than 2 years, so I gave it the engine builder. I was paid out quite well from court, so didn't lose out financially.

The whole jap tuning thing was dying, and fizzled out a few years later.

With the money I nearly went for the Lichfield type25, but couldn't quite get on with the look.

In stock form my Impreza turbo was one of the best cars I've ever owned, fast, practical 4 door saloon

Aye the guys who did Scott's Subaru fitted a 'semi-metallic' clutch plate*, after it had sat for several months it rusted onto the flywheel so not going into gears

* fitted to cope with the 450 BHP on 99 ron fuel but around 600 bhp on e85

 

[Pinno718]

Handy tip for nedt year Pinno - the Buzzweld Lano spray is a lot less expensive than Lanoguard and I personally think its better. It appears to give a thicker film on the surface.

Yeah, cheers. Is it clear?

 

[Drago]

Yeah, cheers. Is it clear?

Yes yes. Me and Fossyant both use it, rate it very highly.

 

[Pinno718]

Yes yes. Me and Fossyant both use it, rate it very highly.

 

[CXRAndy]

Aye the guys who did Scott's Subaru fitted a 'semi-metallic' clutch plate*, after it had sat for several months it rusted onto the flywheel so not going into gears

* fitted to cope with the 450 BHP on 99 ron fuel but around 600 bhp on e85

I had similar upgrade path. More power, needed twin plate clutch, bigger brakes, better suspension, straight cut gearbox

Tuning is a money pit, fun whilst I'm deep, an unnecessary expense after being out of it for a few years.

I still like power, but reliable easy to use. Hence EV for me

 

[Gunk]

Problem is once you’ve experienced a motorcycle with over 150bhp all cars feel boring and cumbersome.

As soon as as I got my first Fireblade I fell out of love with cars. Now I have absolutely no interest in them whatsoever, any opportunity I’ll always take a bike instead.

 

[Fastpedaller]

Here's a weird puzzle for car DIY. I fitted a front dash cam to my Wife's car (ka+) and my kit car, and both dash cams have been working ok for over a year. On both cars I hard-wired the supply via an aftermarket transformer powered from an ignition activated fuse on the fusebox. The one in the Ka+ started giving problems a couple of weeks ago - it kept turning off and on, and it seemed as though it wasn't getting the electrical feed via the mini USB connector. It will only continue a few seconds using its internal battery, hence the turning on and off, although it has enough juice (if left unused for a long period) to retain the date and time settings. I unplugged the dash cam in the ka+ and replaced it with the one from my kit car, but the problem was still there, so I switched them back again. If using a 'plug in the accessory 12v' feed to the mini usb, the dashcam works as expected. So, we have a short-term fix. I checked the feed from the fuse box with a multi-meter, and it's correct, so my initial though was the transformer (12V to 5V had fried itself).
Now here's the real puzzler...........
Last week the dash cam in the kit car stopped working! I haven't had a chance to check the supply with the meter, but since I previously used the car (the dash cam was working ok at the time) I'd removed the battery and put it on smart-charge in the garage. Similar problem, and again if It's powered from the accessory plug it works ok. The only (weird and obscure) reason I can think is if both transformers have failed due to high ambient temperature within the cars during the recent heatwave. Anyone got any other ideas? ETA I'll get the multi-meter on the fuse box of the kit car to ensure there is a feed when I'm next able to stop fixing the Wife's car problems.

 

[Drago]

Problem is once you’ve experienced a motorcycle with over 150bhp all cars feel boring and cumbersome.

As soon as as I got my first Fireblade I fell out of love with cars. Now I have absolutely no interest in them whatsoever, any opportunity I’ll always take a bike instead.

I've gone the other way round. Sold the Max, kept the Fizzer for sentimental reasons but not riding any more, now have no interest in bikes.

Mind you, while cars interest me I don't really like actually driving the damn things.

 

[CXRAndy]

Its not likely a transformer, but a 3 legged regulator. They have thermal protection if they get too hot. A higher Watt rated regulator would be better.

I generally want double the capacity of the power unit than the load demand